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Showing posts with label Colossuem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colossuem. Show all posts

Friday, April 7, 2017

Rome (Italy) - Testing the waters

ROME (ITALY)
07 April – 08 April 2017

In planning our wedding the initial concern was identifying  a suitable location. Riga could very well have been an option but tempting fate with the weather there, even in Summer, might have only lead to heartbreak and disappointment. Belgrade on the other hand just wasn’t a wedding destination draw card. A nice enough city of course but for our wedding? I wanted something dramatic and memorable. That therefore set the scene for a virtual hunt, so we went scouting for what would thus become our very own wedding destination for a destination wedding.

Initially Spain and France made our list of probable locations but due to various administrative difficulties it made the process of getting married almost impossible and unnecessarily complicated. Late one December evening in 2016 I had a moment of inspiration and clarity. Amalfi and its coastline came to me in a rush, Italy might just be the tonic that we needed. It fit the criteria of course, almost certain to have sunshine in Summer, with a  dramatic coastline that dropped startlingly into the beautifully  blue Tyrrhenian Sea, reasonable proximity to both Belgrade and Riga whilst also not being in either of those locations so that neither could have claim favouritism.


Australian Consulate - Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II  - Rome - Italy


With some research we discovered that Italy did allow foreigners to marry in their country with reasonable ease and so, with the assistance of a wedding planner on site in Amalfi, we got to planning our big day.

Administrative requirements

Weddings don’t happen without necessary administrative duties being undertaken before the  actual date. This in fact was our primary for going to Rome, and of course then, the natural follow on would be that we’d head down to Amalfi and check out our venue, which until this point we’d only seen via online photos.

Now first, let me outline the administrative requirements as a foreigner wanting to marry in Italy that need to be met in advance of the knot being tied.

The Atto Notorio – basically this is a sworn affidavit that you get need to have completed at least three months prior to the wedding. A confirmation of civil status, residential details etc. This we needed to have completed at the Australian Embassy and then have filed across town in a registry.


Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II  - Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy


Now, here’s where we had a bit of fun. The wedding planner, who wasn’t that great a planner at all, actually in this situation, assisted us a great deal. She managed to organise witnesses we needed at the Australian Consulate to have the documentation done and also accompany us in terms of the filing of the Atto Notorio. I had also, somewhat courageously, decided that whilst in Rome I would rent a car and drive us around town.

Let me say here, motorists in Rome are NUTS. They are simply unpredictable and move at such velocity that your decision making can’t be delayed. You need to act and be confident in your moves, make them without hesitation. This is where a couple of years of experience driving in Belgrade came as a trump card that I pulled out of my back pocket for just this occasion. Had I have not had that grounding in the art of irrational driving then attempting to get across the city of Rome \ would have been a nightmare. In fact, I did so well that I received a magnificent compliment from our Italian assistant when she said, ‘You don’t drive like an Australian, you drive like an Italian’. Which to me was music to my ears but I think it came more out of fear for her own safety than a comment meant to inspire and commend me on what I was actually doing.


Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Colosseum - Rome - Italy

Colosseum - Rome - Italy


Second administrative requirement, the Nulla Ostrathe second document I needed to provide – was also completed at the Australia embassy. Basically this is a form that needs to be filled by foreigners that want to be married in the country, it shows their intent to do so and in what time frame.

Thankfully getting the administrative components out of the way in Rome was relatively easy and only took the morning to complete. The final step, the Civil Ceremony, is one that still now I’m still suspicious of. Apparently this is the lodgement of the Atto Notorio and Nulla Osta in the marriage office, or Town Hall, of the Italian City where you plan to marry. I’ll discuss this a little more when I get to talking about our stay in Amalfi, but let me say, something inside me seems to still believe that somehow we were married on 09 APRIL 2017 in a Civil Ceremony rather than 30 JUNE 2017…our marriage certificate does say 30 JUNE 2017 but I think its suspect.


Colosseum - Rome - Italy

Colosseum - Rome - Italy

Colosseum - Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy


Administration aside, our free afternoon and evening in Rome allowed us the briefest of moments of sightseeing, which in turn allowed us to take in the Colosseum, the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II and the magnificent Fontana di Trevi. The final stop was a pretty cool experience for me. I remember back in 2008 when I came to Rome the first time I did the three coins tosses into the Trevi, which legend has it that if you complete all three, that the 1st means that you will return to Rome, the 2nd ensures a new romance and the 3rd ensures marriage. Well Fontana di Trevi, here I was again, with my fiancee in Rome completing what we needed to do in order to get married. I say legend has it pretty much spot on.


Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy

Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy


A beautiful city in its eternal beauty and chaos, sadly we only had a few hours to experience what it had to offer but we would be back in a few days. The next day we were off to Amalfi and finally we would get to see if our ‘hunch’ and having a destination wedding in this neck of the woods would pay dividends.